


Partial Displacement

by kivutio



Series: The scars that mold us [2]
Category: Kane and Feels (Podcast)
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Grieving, Mentions of Sex, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:02:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25707118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kivutio/pseuds/kivutio
Summary: The client called the office of Brutus Feels and Lucifer Kane at six in the morning demanding a meeting. They oblige, albeit begrudgingly.Not all is what it seems and Brutus may just be in the centre of it.
Series: The scars that mold us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1622095
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. The message.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Krzeslicko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krzeslicko/gifts).



> This is the longest work (15 pages?? Crazy!) I've ever written. It's all done and written, so I'll put up the second chapter later this week, as it still need a little tweaking. 
> 
> I'm trying out new things, mainly writing longer dialogue and thinking of actual plot (hope it's not too convoluted though). 
> 
> I'll be happy to answer questions in the comments in case I wrote something that can't be understood (it happens! Sometimes I forget not everyone knows what I'm thinking about while writing certain things).

Judy Helper was an ordinary-looking woman in her early thirties. Her mousy hair was kept together in a ponytail at the base of her neck, making it look like a tail of a rat. Her overall appearance just screamed _‘ordinary’_ , which was why Lucifer knew that she was definitely not all that she appeared to be. Even normal people always had something that made them unique, even the most non-magical person had a bit of a spark hidden deep inside them. She wasn’t like that.

Kane squinted his eyes underneath his glasses trying to decipher why exactly their client made him feel so uneasy. He supposed it could be simply the lack of presence she displayed but there was more to her than meets the eye, he was sure of it. For now, he had to start listening to her case.

“So I was sat there and saw the teapot just move on its own! Like it was levitating or something, it was so scary”, she faked a shudder rather theatrically. 

Having tuned out the first thirty minutes of the conversation, Lucifer wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about, but he had no doubts that she had finally arrived in her lengthy tale to the point that mattered the most. The ghost.

“Right, so the ghost,” he finally cut her story short, he’d let her continue for far too long anyway. “So, Miss Helper, could you tell us some more about this apparition that has been haunting you?”

Brutus was throwing his way a look full of concern. Lucifer supposed it had to do with the fact that he allowed the client to waste their time with the useless small talk. He would never admit it, but he did so because he knew Brutus could use a distraction. Recently, he’s been… strangely absent, for the lack of a better word. 

Lucifer shook his head at his partner, wordlessly telling him that he was alright. He didn’t want Brutus to worry about him, it wasn’t anything his friend could help him with, and he knew that Brutus wouldn’t appreciate being treated like a delicate flower. He’d just tell Lucifer not to worry, and he’d try harder to pretend he was fine.

“...and that’s why I thought it was like, I dunno? Fairies? Or maybe gnomes. One of the two, I dunno much about these little guys.”

Lucifer sighed, annoyed when he realized that he’d stopped listening at some point. Again. It was far too easy to tune out her voice, eerily so.

“Wait, could you repeat that?” Lucifer furrowed his eyebrows. That didn’t sound good. He risked a look at Brutus but his partner didn’t seem to be listening and there was an almost vacant look in his eyes. It was worrisome.

“I thought it was fairies. You know, the little creatures with cute tiny wings that live in flowers?” She wiggled her fingers in front of her, imitating wings. “I know they don’t really exist, though, I’m just messing with you two.”

When Lucifer didn’t join her laugh, she froze and looked him dead in the eyes.

“Wait, really? Fairies are real?” She paled, looking now more like a corpse than a lady.

“Unfortunately, faeries are very much real,” Lucifer answered, dread filling his voice which broke slightly at the end sentence. He almost let himself shudder at the memory of their last encounter with the fae folk. He’d almost lost his partner and the thought filled him with unease. “We will need you to tell us more about your family history, any unusual encounters, anything that could be connected with the supernatural world. Hopefully, that will give us the…”

Brutus let out a whine and tumbled downwards, his heavy body slumping to the ground with a deafening thud. 

“Brutus!” Kane let out a scream, leaping towards his partner. “Brutus, what’s wrong?”

A strangled moan was his only answer as Brutus curled up in a ball on the hardwood floor.

Lucifer was at a loss what to do, his blank mind leaving him no other choice but to stare at his unconscious partner for a long time.

When he finally managed to move, he checked Brutus’ whole body in search of any wound he could suffer, anything that could make him pass out in the middle of a conversation, but he found none. 

Lucifer felt lighter, so much so that he let his forehead rest on Brutus’ chest, listening to his slow heartbeat. He was alive. Alive, he repeated to himself, Brutus is alive.

He didn’t realize he was murmuring this until he heard a female voice say in a frigid manner: ‘ _Is he alright?_ ’, making him startle violently.

Judy Helper was sitting on the settee, sipping on the tea which no doubt should already be ice-cold. Despite that, there seemed to be steam coming from her teacup.

His blood turned to ice, and he sprung to his feet making sure to settle himself between her and Brutus.

“What are you?”, he demanded, his aura crackling with purple lightning.

“Do you know what date it is today?”, she asked instead of answering, rather unbothered by his hostility.

“The first of May but I don’t…”, then it dawned on him. The first day of May. Beltane. “Beans.”

She laughed, her voice sounded like a dozen of glass bells being shaken, but there was no mirth in it whatsoever. He could now see what she so meticulously buried under the pretence of a mousy looking woman. Her hair wasn’t mousy at all, it was now shining like a pure gold, liquid and soft-looking. The face that once was _oh, so forgettable_ has been reshaped into that of a royal, her porcelain skin almost see-through.

“Do not fret, I have no intention of killing you. Or your friend”, she added after a pointed look from Kane. He wasn’t sure why he believed her, but he was strangely at ease with her. She emanated a sort of aura that made you want to trust her.

“But I still don’t understand what you’re doing _here_! We’re way too far from Ireland for you to be here. Even with the veil between our worlds being so thin right now because of Beltane, it would still require…”

She put up her hand, stopping him in his tracks.

“The world changes, Shaman, and we change along with it. While it is true that many humans already forgot about us, that does not mean we had died out because of it. There are still some that are willing to connect with us, some even powerful enough to summon us,” she smiled lazily, reminding him of a cat that had caught his prey and was now about to eat it.

“Summon…?”, he murmured. There was a thought at the edge of his mind that he just couldn’t catch.

“Yes. There was a… reckless young couple a few buildings down this street that decided to perform the Great Rite.” She looked at him meaningfully. 

“Poor bastards.” Well, at least they died while having sex, so they probably didn’t even notice the energy drainage and the death gripping them. He generally didn’t trust the fae but this particular one had no reason to lie about _how exactly_ she got to central England. The amount of energy the Great Rite could conjure would take care of that.

“Fine, then. Tell me one thing, though. Exactly _why_ are you here?”, he could only humour her, she clearly wanted him to ask that, and he wanted an answer. He also had no idea _how_ she managed to slip through his defensive wards, he would probably have to put them all up from scratch after she’s gone, but he couldn’t ask her _that_. Admitting to not noticing her would make him look unqualified.

She was silent for a long while as if she was gathering the strength to speak up.

The words that came out when she finally opened her mouth were slow and deliberate. 

“Look at me, Shaman. Who do you think I am?”

“I have no…”, her sharp eyes buried into his own, silencing him on the spot.

He studied her sharp features, her long thin nose, unnaturally clear skin and stupidly long hair. 

Just like the bean sidhe, Brutus described to him all those months ago. 

“That’s impossible!” The bean sidhe Brutus had met couldn’t possibly leave her forest, even with Beltane going on, the celebration honouring Spring not giving the fae enough power to transport themselves all the way to London.

“You would be correct in assuming this, Shaman, for I am not the one that lured your friend into the forest.”

“That’s a relief”, muttered Kane drily.

“My sister asked me to come here.”

 _Her sister!_ Lucifer felt the blood flow from his face as he swallowed hard. He could now see the powerful aura surrounding her, almost to the point of blinding him.

"That's even worse." Such a powerful fae could only mean trouble, and Brutus dared to _steal a baby from her sister_. This was going to end badly, he just knew it.

“She left her mark on him, you see,” she continued, looking at him intensely. She completely ignored his comment. “One that cannot be seen by mortal eyes, not even yours. She’s always been one for the delicate work,” her eyes glistened wistfully, an expression that made her look almost human. “She didn’t realize how grave the consequence of her actions would be.”

He raked his brain in search of an explanation of these words. _What consequences_? He cursed, not for the first time, the lack of any useful information about the fae folk. Lucifer wanted to know why she would come here, of all places. What did he care what happened to a fae?

She saw him struggle to understand, so she added in a voice that reminded him of raindrops pattering on a window, “Not for her. For him.”

That stopped him in his tracks, making him look back at his partner. He fervently thought back to how Brutus behaved following his escape from the forest, his absent-minded stare like he was searching for something. Then he realized what she was referring to.

“He left something there, hasn’t he.” This wasn’t a question. “Something important.”

Her hair shone in the light that wasn’t there. 

“My sister did something she shouldn’t have. She wanted a bit of his power for herself, so she gifted him with something from her realm," she answered.

“The fae don’t give gifts,” scoffed Lucifer but his voice lacked his usual bravado.

“You’re right. It was an exchange. She gave it to him for a fragment of his power. That’s why a small part of his soul is now tethered to our world.”

Lucifer cursed under his breath, now fully grasping the danger of his partner’s situation. He couldn't lose Brutus to the unknowable. He refused to allow it to happen!

“I wouldn’t come here just for that, we often take a part of a soul of visiting humans, it’s a powerful source of energy. Most don’t even notice it's gone. But your friend is too powerful, and we cannot contain the power we took from him any longer. If the other fae discover what a treasure we’re hiding, they _will_ attack us. And we can’t deal with that at the moment,” she continued.

“What do you want?” he asked through his teeth. He didn’t doubt that making a deal with a fae, especially a fae so powerful, would not be cheap. 

He asked himself if it would be worth it. _Yes_ , he decided, the determination filling his previously slumped shoulders. _Brutus was worth it all._

Although he couldn’t be sure, he could swear that she smiled approvingly at him. 

“No need to worry, Shaman, for I only came to exchange one thing for another, there’s nothing more that I require from you.” He noted her wording.” Giving back what was freely given may not be our usual manner, but we do that. Occasionally.” 

“I presume someone else had already paid?” Poor, young fools, paying for something they had nothing to do with. That just showed how dangerous meddling with the other world was for those who remained ignorant.

The fae nodded but other than that her body didn’t move at all, reminding Kane of a statue made from precious stones.

“Bring me the thing he hides in his right breast pocket.” 

Lucifer begrudgingly obliged.

“Is that…?”, he hesitated before pulling his hand away from Brutus’ pocket.

“This is what keeps him from forgetting our realm. Unfortunately for him, humans aren’t meant to remember our world.”

“What can I do to help him?”, asked Lucifer, already aware that simply taking away the cursed object would not make everything come back to normal.

She looked at him pensively for a while before responding. It seemed to him like she was trying to find the right wording. Like she was using a long-forgotten language.

“Distract him. The memories will fade on their own given some time but it will be difficult for him.”

He hummed distractedly, already going through all the things he had to do.

“One more thing, Shaman, and this is an advice.”

Lucifer looked up, curious but cautious at the same time.

“You need to teach him the power a person’s name holds over them. He gave it away _oh, so_ readily, didn’t even hesitate. I will not take it with me, it is not what I do.” Lucifer huffed at that, glad, still feeling strangely relaxed in her company. “Be warned, however,” her voice turned to frost. “Not all of my kind are this forgiving. Remember that we are no longer as powerful as we used to be, Shaman. I will not be able to help you like this again."

And with that, she was gone, taking some light along with her.


	2. The message.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brutus' side of the tale.

The whole day started pretty normally, with a client that called them at six in the morning sobbing into the phone, begging them to help her. She didn’t bother to mention what precisely was going on. They agreed, of course. Well, Brutus did. Lucifer just threw a pillow at him and told him to sod off. He was always snappy in the morning.

The client turned out to be a mousy-looking woman around her mid-twenties. First thing she told Brutus when she saw him was that he looked like a professor at her university. She didn’t tell him what she was studying, though. She was also eerily focused on him, almost to the point of completely ignoring Kane, which wasn’t unheard of, but usually happened after the clients saw how rude Lucifer could be.

After demanding a cuppa and getting it, she proceeded to describe her day, not really saying anything worth noting about her case. Despite that, Brutus was listening intently, always up for helping their clients unwind, fully aware that sometimes all they needed was a pair of ears ready to listen. Most of the time they paid better than the clients with ghost cases. This said something about them, the fact that they would rather pay for a day of work of private paranormal investigators and risk being laughed at by their family than go to a psychologist to seek advice from a professional. Or simply talk to their friends. 

Either way, Judy was a real talker, which wasn’t unusual, the people who would come to their office tended to be loners starving for someone to listen to them. What was unusual about this situation, however, was that Kane let her talk for so long. More often than not he would just rudely interrupt and get to the core of things but not today. He must have something on his mind, decided Brutus.

“So it all started a few months ago, you see. My pots and pans started disappearing and then appearing in odd places, there was less food in the fridge and stuff. I thought nothing of it, honestly, but then I realized that I haven’t seen my flatmate in a while, and so I went and asked my landlady, and she told me, she’s a real dear, that one, you know. She always asks me how I’m doing and is really interested in what I’m doing. Real nice woman.” She stopped talking, lost in thought.

Brutus couldn’t take his mind off Lucifer’s behaviour, so he risked looking away from the client, trying not to make it too obvious that he wasn’t listening. Fortunately, it seemed that his fears were unfounded, as Luce didn’t look worried at all, he was simply lost in thoughts.

_ That was a relief.  _

“What was I…?”. Judy woke up from her daydreams a bit disoriented, making Brutus turn his attention back to her. “Ah, my flatmate, right. So I asked Mathilda, my landlady, if she knew where Lena was. Lena’s my flatmate. Or was my flatmate? Anyway, Mathilda said that Lena hasn’t been returning her calls! All of her stuff is still in the house, you see, so we thought she just went on holidays and forgot to tell us. Cause let me tell you, Mister Feels...”

“Brutus, please.”

Judy paused at that, staring at him unblinkingly for a few seconds before returning to talking.

“Alright then! Then let me tell you, Brutus, that woman would forget her damn head if she could! I’ve known her for a long time now, and there was that one time when we were twenty when she…”

She carried on, tirelessly, in her monotone tone of voice that made even him want to close his eyes and rest his weary head on a pillow. Brutus really liked talking to people but Miss Judy Helper was too much even to him. 

He turned his head to the side, this time not trying to hide the fact that he wasn't listening to her. He could almost see the veins popping on Luce’s head. Brutus sighed. They should put an end to their shared misery soon, or they would no doubt lose their minds trying not to fall asleep on their client. Or Luce would burn down their flat. Whichever came first.

“Miss Helper,” started Brutus wanting to cut in on her speech when he heard Judy say  _ ‘it was like, I dunno? Faeries? Or maybe…’ _ and his mind immediately froze up.

Faeries… he told Kane about that time he went to the fae world but there were some aspects of his adventure that he only started to remember recently. One of the things that he now knew for sure was the fact that he had spent so much more time in that sunny land below the surface than he had initially thought. Brutus knew that it was usually the other way round, that according to folk legends one day spent in the land of fae usually equalled a few years in the human world.

It was the exact opposite for him, it seemed, although he wasn’t quite sure why that was. Now he knew that he’d spent many months in the fae land, feasting and sharing his lodgings with these magical creatures. He got close to them, the mutual understanding that blossomed between them was something he had never experienced before. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to function now that he knew that what he was missing his whole life was for someone to understand him.

And then there was the Queen.

She made him feel light as a feather, her embrace surrounded him with an amazing warmth. She made him forget the ugliness of the outside world, and for that, he would be forever grateful. He felt like he owed her a debt for showing him the light amid the dark.

He wanted to stay with her forever, but he couldn’t force himself to do so, not when he saw the supermarket label on that child’s hat. 

Just like everything else in his life, even the possibility of leading an unburdened life had been completely stripped from him, forcing him to leave behind a person that made him feel complete.

Funny, how you don’t usually notice that a person is gone. It’s not that you don’t miss them, but you don’t think about this feeling when you purposefully busy your mind with meaningless tasks. That’s why it hits you harder when you realize they aren’t here any more; you see something you know they’d like and turn around to show it to them, but they aren’t next to you like they should be. Your mind doesn’t catch up with that fact for a moment, but that’s why it’s even more horrible - for a few seconds you are searching for them, but they aren’t here and you can’t comprehend why. 

Then it dawns on you and the harrowing grief you almost forgot about returns twice as strong; you rot from the inside out again, each time leaving you battered, until all that’s left is an empty shell of the former you. The larvae are eating your insides because the rot of your insides has already spread to the rest of your body, and are you even  _ alive  _ any more? Why are you here if they didn’t make it?

...

It passes in stages.

You regain the sense of smell and touch first, feeling the sticky sweat covering you whole, you’re able to smell the acrid smell of your own body. After that returns the sight and hearing, almost overwhelming you and making the contents of your stomach revolt.

When you’re back, you feel empty, like a deflated balloon after a birthday party.

You wonder, then, if it will ever pass and if you’ll fill ever feel whole again.

***

When he woke up, they were alone. 

“Where’s Miss Helper?”, he asked groggily. He didn’t know what happened to him, but he remembered them having a client. He immediately regretted talking. “God, my head.”

“Shut up Brutus,” whispered Kane in a tight voice passing him some pills and a glass of water. “Just… stop talking.”

They sat there, on the floor, for what seemed like hours, until Brutus felt the headache recede.

“She was… possessed,” started Lucifer when they finally sat on the settee, and they both had a steaming cuppa in hand. He was avoiding looking Brutus in the eyes. “I couldn’t help her any more.”

“Why not?”, he was surprised at how calm he sounded. 

“I… there are things you don’t yet understand about the other world. Things that could make you want to stab your eyes just for a chance to unsee them. You are not ready to…”

“We both know that’s bullshit, Kane. I won’t ever be ready! Were you?” That was a low blow, but he was tired and running low on patience. 

Lucifer sat there for a second, looking unbelievably fragile but the moment passed before Brutus could be sure it happened. 

“I’ll get you some more tea, stay here.” He then got up and almost run out of the room.

“You’re an awful liar, Luce,” he said to an empty room.

The next morning he found a newspaper on the table, opened on the fifth page. It described a strange case of a couple that died from a heart attack while having sex. There was a picture of a mousy looking woman with a man, both in their mid-twenties. The woman looked strangely familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint why that was. His mind felt a bit muddy after the meeting with their client yesterday, although he couldn’t recall how that client looked like. The only thing he was sure of was that she emanated warmth.

Brutus didn’t know why Lucifer didn’t want to tell him anything about her, and he was sure that he wouldn’t get any answers from him, as always. 

That’s why he took one last look at the newspaper and put it in a bin, along with an acorn he found in the forest. He couldn’t bring himself to throw it away earlier but the weird feeling of being tethered to it had disappeared. 

The next day, the acorn was gone, along with a fracture of the emptiness that resided in him for so long.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you to my lovely beta @Krzeslicko, to whom I gift this story. Happy early birthday, you old hag!


End file.
